Black Muslims : Meaning of Hetep

Shem em Hetep is a phrase meaning Go in Hetep from Ancient Chem, falsely called Egypt. Hetep is a state of peace, of oneness. More than an ephemeral, fleeting feeling of whimsy and delight, hetep is a state of being in which one exist, an unshakable, inner strength. This state of hetep, is a state of stillness, unity and satisfaction. It is the state of non-detachment.

All around us we are bombarded by illusory matters which seek to bring us under their domination. Everywhere we receive the message that the person is made of what they wear, how they speak, where they are from, their economic status, all things which are non-eternal and thus false as the real is eternal. The clothes will tatter, wealth will be spent, beauty diminished, and then, for the person who thinks these things make him, who is bound by these desires, life will be over, as what he is, his possesions and desires, are gone. The case is not the same however, for the man of hetep. One who dwells in the state of hetep is free from desires, free from duality, beyond getting and losing. The person who dwells in hetep has come to complete satisfaction in the Self, not the persona, but that Self which is in him and all men and comes directly from deity himself. When he finds the Self made of Truth, that Self made of Mind, the Self of His Father Allah, then he sits as does his Lord in a seat of power. Not being bound by dualities, not being bound by trivial rituals and observances, his persona being fully merged with his Self, he sees the end from the beginning, his knowledge being perfected, his God-head restored. That is what hetep is, the restoration of the godhead to the Children of the Sun.